


Two Halves of a Heart

by Pippinpaddleopsicopolis (Barnable)



Series: Whenever I'm Around You [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: ATLA WLW Week 2020, Azula (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Day Three: Canon World | Soulmate, F/F, First Kiss, Gentle Kissing, POV Azula (Avatar), Post-Canon, Reunions, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26475823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barnable/pseuds/Pippinpaddleopsicopolis
Summary: One year after Sozin's Comet, Azula gets a surprise visit from an old friend.
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Series: Whenever I'm Around You [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931983
Comments: 7
Kudos: 91
Collections: AtLA WLW week 2020





	Two Halves of a Heart

The last time Azula got a visitor was, well, never. So, it was really no surprise that she wasn’t expecting anyone to show up that day.

She was in the middle of brushing her hair for the fifteenth time that day when the knock arrived at the door. At first, she thought she might have been hearing things. It wasn’t like anyone knew where she was except for Zuko, and even if they did, they wouldn’t want to visit her. As such, she assumed her live-in therapist had forgotten her keys at home and went over to answer the knock with only slight hesitation.

Every bone in her body froze when she pulled the door back to find Ty Lee on the other side of it.

They met each other’s eyes for no more than a moment before they both looked away. Ty Lee turned to her hands, fiddling with her fingers, while Azula gripped at the edge of her shirt and did everything she could to keep her gaze from drifting back to her old friend. Neither of them spoke a single word and while a part of Azula knew she should say something first, apologize for what happened, she didn’t know how to do it.

“Hey,” said Ty Lee finally, staring down at her feet as she shuffled awkwardly against the porch. “Sorry I didn’t let you know I was coming, I barely got Zuko to tell me where you were and once he finally did, I just… I came as fast as I could.”

“Why?” Azula was too harsh with her words and she recognized it immediately. It was the exact tone her therapist was trying to teach her not to use anymore. “Why would you do that? I ruined your _life_ , Ty Lee. Why would you ever want to see me?”

Ty Lee hesitated, biting down on the edge of her lip. Her pink shoes continued to shift back and forth across the wood beneath her, as she turned her gaze to avoid meeting Azula’s dark amber eyes. Ty Lee was just as beautiful as the last time they’d seen each other, and it took everything for Azula to keep from saying something. From sharing the love she’d learned to uncover.

“You know why I’m here.” She sniffed, tugging on her sleeves with her hands. Azula glanced down to her own, relieved to find she was wearing long sleeves. “I don’t blame you for what happened, Azula. We were just kids caught in a war. I might not approve of everything you did, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand why you did it.”

Azula nodded, her right thumb moving instinctively to stroke the inside of her left wrist. Through her shirt she couldn’t feel the scars, but she knew they were there, and it was enough to cause a pang of guilt in her chest. Ty Lee was the only person she’d really felt that for, aside from a few rare moments spared to Mai and Zuko. It was weird seeing her again, only a few weeks after she’d finally started to move on.

“You should come inside; it’s freezing out there.”

It was a stupid thing to say. The weather was definitively not freezing but she couldn’t stop herself from blurting out the words anyway. She needed an excuse for Ty Lee to come into the house, a way to keep her from leaving so shortly after she’d come back into Azula’s life. Thankfully, Ty Lee nodded and stepped inside when Azula moved for her to enter, slipping off her shoes and leaving them on the mat before continuing into the home.

The building was nothing special. There were only five rooms, and the living area was quaint enough that Azula wanted to burn it down the first time she walked in. But she didn’t. Somehow, her therapist talked her down and she accepted her new life of living there, in the outback of fucking nowhere. She gestured for Ty Lee to sit down on the couch first, hesitating before she took her seat on the other side of it.

“This is beautiful,” said Ty Lee thoughtfully. She pulled her light brown braid around to the front, taking a long look around the room. “It must be nice living out here. It’s like a mini beach house.”

“The scenery is pleasant,” Azula replied, dragging her feet onto the cushions, “but the situation is not. I never thought I would say this, but it’s lonely out here. I just have one crazy old woman keeping me company and she’s not even here right now.”

“Why not? Sorry, you don’t have to answer that, it’s just that Zuko said she lived with you.”

“She does, but she went to the market to get some things. Said she would be back soon. Anyway, is there a particular reason you came here to see me, or did you just want to gloat at how awful everything is?” The look on Ty Lee’s face immediately dropped, and Azula sat up and reached out for her hand before she knew what she was doing. “I didn’t mean that. You know I didn’t mean that.”

“Yeah, I do.” Ty Lee placed her other hand on top of Azula’s, giving her a reassuring smile. It was weird, having someone look at her like that. Like they really did care about her. “Hey, do you have any fire gummies? I’m starving.”

Azula snorted and reached onto the table behind her, tossing a package of fire gummies Ty Lee’s way. They always had the same taste in snacks, ever since they were kids. Mai didn’t like a lot of the things they did, and they always thought it was funny to see how much they could get her to eat without realizing. Not that they would ever tell her it was a game of theirs, of course. As far as Azula was aware, they’d kept it a secret to that day.

They sat in silence for a moment, neither saying a word as they munched on their fire gummies and occasionally made eye-contact. It still didn’t make sense that Ty Lee came there after Azula betrayed her and tried to commit literal genocide, but she tried not to think about it too hard. Like her therapist said, she had to stop believing everyone had an ulterior motive. Not everyone in the world was out to destroy her.

“So, it looks like you’re doing a lot better,” said Ty Lee, twisting another fire gummy around in her hands. “That’s good.”

“Yeah. What about you?” Azula nodded to her, squeezing a gummy in her own palm as she prayed beyond anything that she’d get the answers she was hoping for. “What are you doing now? Do you still live in the Capital, or do you have a significant other, or…?”

“Actually, I’m one of the Kyoshi Warriors now! You know, the girls we impersonated during your coup of Ba Sing Se? They’re pretty nice. I dated one of them for a while, but it didn’t work out. Not because of— we just kind of drifted apart. Well, not really, it’s hard to do that when you’re training together every day, but you know what I mean.”

“Uh, sure, I got it. But are you— are you happy? Does doing that make you happy?”

Ty Lee hesitated, and during the silence, Azula found herself hoping for nothing more than the guarantee that her friend was okay. That after everything that happened, she was still able to make a good life for herself. She took a deep breath, popping her squished gummy into her mouth and gripping a pillow between her hands.

“I am, yeah. It makes me really happy.” She smiled, reaching out to nudge Azula’s knee. Azula barely forced a cheerful look back, not quite sure how to express that emotion without more of a prompter. “The only problem is that I really miss you guys. You and Mai, I mean. Even with everything that happened, we were really good friends. All of us. I do see Mai sometimes but not as much as I used to, and…”

“And you never see me,” Azula finished when Ty Lee’s voice drifted off. Ty Lee only nodded, turning back down to her hands. Against her natural instincts, Azula reached over and pushed her chin up, urging Ty Lee to look at her. “Believe me, you’re not missing much. Sometimes I go on a walk or for a swim but basically all I ever do is sit around like this. It’s excruciatingly dull.”

“Sounds like it. Still, I really miss you. I do. And I know that things aren’t quite the way they were supposed to be, but I just hope that maybe we can be friends again someday. At least in contact, versus the way we are right now. Not that I blame you for it! I know some of Zuko’s conditions meant you had to stay secluded during recovery, but I miss you. I really do.”

“I… miss you too. I know we agreed the universe made a mistake but every time I look at those scars, I can’t help but wonder if maybe it was right. Maybe there was something there that we just didn’t see. Maybe we just didn’t wait long enough, or the situation was too fucked up and we couldn’t find ourselves in the midst of all the chaos. Maybe I was in love with you all along.”

Ty Lee opened her mouth to respond, but pulled it shut again quickly, shaking her head slightly. That was it. Azula went too far with her rambles. She learned how to be honest at some point in the last year, but she hadn’t learned how to filter it. She hadn’t learned how to stop herself from saying the shit that had the potential to hurt other people. Azula sighed, started to apologize, and froze.

Considering she wasn’t even expecting a visitor, Azula was in no reality anticipating an intimate one and was rightfully shocked when the situation suddenly escalated. Ty Lee’s lips were on hers before she knew what was happening, and it took a moment for her to regain her bearings. She slid a hand around Ty Lee’s waist, her other hand playing with her braid as she pulled her in closer.

Her skin was soft and warm and though it was spontaneous, the kiss was everything Azula ever dreamed it would be. Ty Lee was gentle, and kind and she smiled just the smallest bit through the moment which made Azula chuckle and start to smile on her end too. It was an emotion she hadn’t felt before, a moment she never wanted to end.

They pulled away after just a few seconds longer, and while Azula simply slid back into the cushions, Ty Lee rose to her feet. She took a step back, rubbing her wrist where Azula’s soul mark showed on the skin beneath her sleeve. Ty Lee grimaced awkwardly and pulled the fabric back over the golden design, her gaze flickering to Azula’s wrist for the briefest moment before she turned away.

Azula burned hers off when she was a teenager. Her father told her that she couldn’t have a soulmate who was a non-bender, and she listened. She listened to him and she burned off the beautiful pink design that had been engraved on her left wrist since birth. Ty Lee knew about it, and she never said a word. She left hers where it was despite them agreeing they couldn’t be together, but only because she claimed she couldn’t imagine not having it.

“I should go,” said Ty Lee suddenly, turning back toward the door.

“No, wait.” Immediately, Azula leapt off the couch, following Ty Lee down the short hallway. “Please don’t go, Ty Lee. I know it’s not exactly the ideal situation, but—”

“But you meant what you said and maybe the universe was right? I know, I’ve been waiting forever to hear you say that, but I don’t know. I don’t know if we could make it work. Not after everything that’s happened, and with the fact that we live on different continents and all that.”

“We don’t have to make it work yet. I don’t even think I’m ready for a relationship, I just have to know if there’s a chance. Not now, but someday. Even if you don’t want to be with me like that, we could always just become old cat ladies. You like cats right? People like cats.”

“Yeah.” Ty Lee smiled brightly, turning around to step back up to Azula. She dropped her hands onto Azula’s shoulders, leaning forward before she pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. The affection swirled in Azula’s stomach in a way she barely recognized. “I’ll send you letters, okay? And when you feel like you’re ready, let me know and I’ll come find you. And the cats too. If you have space in your heart for a circus freak, I can… you know what I mean.”

She nearly moved to leave, but Azula reached for her hand first, locking their arms together at the exact place their soul marks met. Two halves of a heart, filled with intricately mismatched designs to represent their soulmates. Azula’s was burned to hell and gone but the faint, shining pink outline still lay on her skin; barely connecting with the edge of Ty Lee’s.

They held hands for a good twenty seconds before Ty Lee laid a kiss on the back of Azula’s hand and pulled away. Their gazes remained locked even after they slid apart, their eyes following each other until Ty Lee’s fingers wrapped around the doorknob. She pressed a kiss to her own palm and blew it in Azula’s direction, the smallest, brightest smile sliding up her cheeks.

“You better have a cat next time I see you,” said Azula, biting down on her lip.

“Don’t worry,” Ty Lee laughed. “I’ll have everything you need.”

 _That’s obvious_ , thought Azula, watching as Ty Lee vanished from her view. _Everything I need just walked out that door._


End file.
